List of Windows NT Native API Functions

2025-06-18

This list comprises numerous Windows NT native API functions, covering various aspects such as file systems, process management, thread management, security, and registry. These functions are core to low-level Windows operations, forming the foundation for higher-level application interfaces. Understanding them is crucial for system programmers and security researchers.

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Development

The Cognitive Cost of LLMs: A Study on Essay Writing

2025-06-18

A study investigating the cognitive cost of using Large Language Models (LLMs) in essay writing reveals potential negative impacts on learning. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, search engine, and brain-only. EEG data showed that the LLM group exhibited weaker neural connectivity, lower engagement, and poorer performance in terms of essay ownership and recall, ultimately scoring lower than the brain-only group. The findings highlight potential downsides of LLM use in education and call for further research to understand the broader implications of AI on learning environments.

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AI

MiniMax-M1: A 456B Parameter Hybrid-Attention Reasoning Model

2025-06-18
MiniMax-M1: A 456B Parameter Hybrid-Attention Reasoning Model

MiniMax-M1, a groundbreaking open-weight, large-scale hybrid-attention reasoning model, boasts 456 billion parameters. Powered by a hybrid Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture and a lightning attention mechanism, it natively supports a context length of 1 million tokens. Trained using large-scale reinforcement learning, MiniMax-M1 outperforms other leading models like DeepSeek R1 and Qwen3-235B on complex tasks, particularly in software engineering and long-context understanding. Its efficient test-time compute makes it a strong foundation for next-generation language model agents.

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Scrappy: Building Home-Grown Apps for Friends and Family

2025-06-18
Scrappy: Building Home-Grown Apps for Friends and Family

John and Pontus created Scrappy, a research prototype for making simple, personalized apps for yourself and your friends. It's a visual tool similar to Figma or Google Slides, but allows attaching behaviors to interactive objects. You drag and drop objects like buttons and text fields, and add JavaScript code to define their actions, like recording text input on a button click. Scrappy apps are multiplayer, with persistent and synced state, making collaboration with friends and family seamless. The goal is to democratize software creation, enabling more people to build apps tailored to their unique needs.

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ChatGPT in Education: A Double-Edged Sword

2025-06-18
ChatGPT in Education: A Double-Edged Sword

Recent studies explore the use of ChatGPT and other large language models in education. While some research suggests ChatGPT can effectively assist students in learning programming and other skills, boosting learning efficiency, other studies highlight the risk of over-reliance, leading to dependency, reduced independent learning, and even impaired critical thinking. Ethical concerns, such as potential cheating and intellectual property infringement, are also prominent. Balancing ChatGPT's benefits and risks is a crucial challenge for educators.

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AI

Microsoft's Open-Source CLI Text Editor: Edit – Lightweight, Fast, and VS Code-like

2025-06-18
Microsoft's Open-Source CLI Text Editor: Edit – Lightweight, Fast, and VS Code-like

Microsoft has released Edit, a lightweight, fast, and easy-to-use open-source command-line text editor. Designed with a user experience similar to VS Code, Edit aims to fill the gap in recent Windows versions which lack a built-in CLI text editor. While primarily targeted at Windows users, Edit also works on Linux and macOS. Its modeless editing, blazing-fast file opening, and minimalist feature set make it ideal for quick text edits. Though lacking advanced features like syntax highlighting, its speed and simplicity make it a compelling alternative.

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Development

Incant: Add Magic Spells to Your Code

2025-06-18
Incant: Add Magic Spells to Your Code

Incant is a new library that allows developers to safely integrate language model invocations. It provides primitives like `createSelector` and `createFilter` for array operations such as picking the highest number or filtering male names. Incant reads API keys from environment variables, is easy to configure, and guarantees type safety, preventing hallucinations. However, be aware that all input data is sent to upstream inference providers, so avoid sending personal or sensitive information.

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Development

Skywater 130nm SerDes Design: High-Speed Communication Achieved

2025-06-18
Skywater 130nm SerDes Design: High-Speed Communication Achieved

This project details a high-speed Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) circuit designed for high-speed communication. Implemented using Verilog HDL and synthesized with OpenLane on the Skywater OpenPDK 130nm process, the SerDes converts parallel data into a serial stream for transmission and back again at the receiver. The design includes a transmitter (using a chain of CMOS inverters as a driver), a receiver (employing a resistive feedback inverter and CMOS inverter for sensing and amplification), a D-flip-flop for data sampling, and an oversampling CDR for clock recovery. GDS, SPICE, and netlist files for all modules are provided.

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LA General's John Does: A Healthcare Crisis of Unidentified Patients

2025-06-18
LA General's John Does: A Healthcare Crisis of Unidentified Patients

Los Angeles General Medical Center annually admits tens of thousands of unidentified patients, most of whom are quickly identified. However, some, like a man found unconscious in February, remain for months or years due to a lack of identifying information. The hospital attempts to locate relatives by releasing photos and limited details, with mixed success. This presents not only administrative challenges but also patient safety concerns and strains healthcare resources. Multiple similar cases highlight the difficulties posed by unidentified patients, underscoring the need for societal attention to vulnerable populations.

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Universal Rules Template for AI Coding Assistants: Supercharge Your Workflow

2025-06-18
Universal Rules Template for AI Coding Assistants: Supercharge Your Workflow

Tired of inconsistent AI behavior across different coding assistants? This template provides a robust, cross-platform framework to elevate your AI pair-programming experience. It leverages established software engineering principles and structured documentation to ensure consistent AI operation, deep project understanding, and optimal workflows across tools like Cursor, CLINE, RooCode, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot. Move beyond simple prototypes and build sophisticated applications with AI partners that truly understand your project.

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Development

The Never-Ending Workday: Microsoft's Shocking Findings

2025-06-18
The Never-Ending Workday: Microsoft's Shocking Findings

Microsoft's annual work trends report reveals a disturbing trend: the workday is extending far beyond traditional hours. Meetings scheduled after 8 PM are up 16%, and nearly a third of workers are still checking emails at 10 PM. The blurring of work-life boundaries is further highlighted by the fact that almost 20% of employees working weekends check email before noon on Saturdays and Sundays, with over 5% actively engaging with emails again on Sunday evenings.

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lstr: Blazing Fast Directory Tree Viewer in Rust

2025-06-18
lstr: Blazing Fast Directory Tree Viewer in Rust

lstr is a blazingly fast, minimalist directory tree viewer written in Rust. Inspired by the `tree` command, lstr offers a powerful interactive mode alongside a classic view. It leverages parallel directory scanning for speed, features a clean and uncluttered interface, and provides options to display file icons, permissions, sizes, and Git status. Integration with `.gitignore`, depth control, and fuzzy finding (via fzf) are also supported. You can even integrate lstr into your shell as a visual `cd` command. Whether you prefer the classic tree-like view or the interactive TUI, lstr's efficiency and clean design will enhance your file management workflow.

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Development directory tree

5,000-Year-Old Bread Unearthed in Turkey: A Culinary Time Capsule

2025-06-18
5,000-Year-Old Bread Unearthed in Turkey: A Culinary Time Capsule

Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed a remarkably preserved 5,000-year-old loaf of bread, a rare find in the field. Discovered at the Kulluoba site in Eskisehir province, the Bronze Age bread was burnt and buried under a dwelling entrance, protecting it from decay. The discovery offers unique insights into ancient diets and agricultural practices. Local bakers have successfully recreated the bread using ancient wheat, lentils, and bulgur, resulting in a popular local treat.

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Apple's Post-Quantum Cryptography Support in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, and visionOS 26

2025-06-17

iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, and visionOS 26 now include support for post-quantum cryptography, negotiating quantum-safe key exchange (X25519MLKEM768) via TLS 1.3. This enhances security by preventing future quantum computers from decrypting TLS traffic. However, some legacy servers may fail to connect due to oversized ClientHello messages. Apple provides a temporary compatibility mode (`defaults write com.apple.network.tls AllowPQTLSFallback -bool true`) as a workaround, but this is a temporary solution.

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Plasma 6.4: Smoother, Friendlier, and More Powerful Desktop Experience

2025-06-17
Plasma 6.4: Smoother, Friendlier, and More Powerful Desktop Experience

KDE Plasma 6.4 is here, offering a smoother, friendlier, and more powerful desktop experience. Improvements span accessibility, color rendering, tablet support, window management, and more. Key features include customizable tile layouts per virtual desktop, an overhauled Spectacle screenshot tool, color visualization in KRunner, and enhanced support for digital artists and HDR displays. The update also refines notifications, widgets, and system monitoring. Plasma 6.4 focuses on creating a more convenient and efficient desktop environment.

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Development

A Cheap and Cheerful Cross-Country Bus Adventure: Across Upstate New York by Local Transit

2025-06-17
A Cheap and Cheerful Cross-Country Bus Adventure: Across Upstate New York by Local Transit

The author recounts a journey across Upstate New York using only local rural county transit buses to reach their grandmother's house for Easter, prioritizing cost-effectiveness over convenience. The trip proved challenging, with obscure and often outdated schedules, infrequent service, and difficult transfers, sometimes requiring long walks or overnight stays. However, the journey was richly rewarding, filled with eccentric characters, a slower pace of life, and a unique glimpse into rural American life. The author concludes that this unconventional method, though inefficient, offers a far cheaper and more authentic travel experience than traditional methods.

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The Grug Brained Developer: A Guide to Fighting Complexity

2025-06-17

This humorous guide to software development, written from the perspective of a "Grug" developer, offers practical strategies for combating complexity. Complexity is likened to a demonic force invading the codebase. The author advocates for saying "no" to unnecessary features and abstractions, emphasizing the 80/20 rule (delivering 80% of value with 20% of code). Key strategies include proper code factorization, strategic refactoring, effective testing, and tooling. The article is a witty and insightful read offering valuable lessons for developers of all levels.

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Development Complexity

3D-Printed Device Creates Acoustic Rainbows Without Electricity

2025-06-17
3D-Printed Device Creates Acoustic Rainbows Without Electricity

Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have developed a 3D-printed acoustic rainbow emitter (ARE) that separates broadband white noise into distinct frequencies and directs them in different directions, creating an acoustic rainbow. Unlike traditional acoustic systems, the ARE uses passive scattering, requiring no electricity. By leveraging computational morphogenesis, topology optimization, and wave-based modeling, the researchers designed a complex structure that manipulates sound waves through interactions with its surface. This groundbreaking device opens new avenues in acoustic sensing and control, offering potential applications in various fields.

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Senate Passes Sweeping Stablecoin Bill, Crypto Regulation Enters New Era

2025-06-18
Senate Passes Sweeping Stablecoin Bill, Crypto Regulation Enters New Era

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 (GENIUS) Act with a 68-30 vote, marking a significant milestone in U.S. crypto policy. The bill, which garnered substantial Democratic support, sets guardrails around stablecoin issuers like Circle, Ripple, and Tether, demanding stringent reserve requirements, transparency, anti-money laundering compliance, and new capital rules. While not satisfying all critics, supporters argue inaction is no longer an option given the growing prevalence of stablecoins. The bill's passage represents a step toward the U.S. becoming a global crypto leader, but its fate is intertwined with the House's Digital Asset Market Clarity Act; both bills' passage is crucial for shaping the future of U.S. crypto markets.

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Foundry: Enabling AI Agents to Master Web Browsers

2025-06-17
Foundry: Enabling AI Agents to Master Web Browsers

Foundry, a San Francisco-based startup, is building infrastructure that allows AI agents to use web browsers just like humans. They're tackling the current limitations of AI agents interacting with enterprise applications (like Salesforce and SAP), such as frequent stalling and extensive manual debugging. Foundry employs a similar strategy to Waymo and Scale AI, building robust infrastructure for rapid performance improvements in AI agents, aiming to make AI-powered automation more reliable and practical. They're actively recruiting elite engineers passionate about delivering foundational technology quickly.

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AI

Mario Kart World's HDR Fail: The SDR-First Pipeline Trap

2025-06-17
Mario Kart World's HDR Fail: The SDR-First Pipeline Trap

Nintendo's Switch 2 launched with Mario Kart World, promising 4K60 + HDR. However, a detailed analysis reveals the game suffers from poor HDR implementation. The author, a veteran of Xbox's HDR program, demonstrates that the game uses static tone mapping, capping peak brightness at around 950 nits and limiting color gamut to Rec.709. This points to an SDR-first workflow where HDR is a last-minute afterthought, rather than native HDR production. The author explains this 'fake HDR' stems from many developers still using SDR-first pipelines, resulting in subpar HDR. The solution? Prioritize HDR from the start, embrace wide color gamut and dynamic tone mapping to unleash the full potential of HDR hardware and significantly improve visual quality.

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Game

Visual Math Proofs: A Gallery of Geometric Demonstrations

2025-06-18

This article presents a collection of visual proofs for various mathematical identities and theorems, drawing inspiration from a gallery of geometric demonstrations. It covers summations, geometric series, geometry, and miscellaneous topics. Examples include intuitive pictorial proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, triangle area formulas, and various summation formulas. These visual proofs offer a concise and insightful approach to understanding complex mathematical concepts.

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Will LLMs End Programming? Lessons from Machine Translation

2025-06-17

The debate rages on: will large language models (LLMs) render programmers obsolete? This article uses machine translation as a compelling analogy. While tools like Google Translate have revolutionized translation, they haven't replaced human translators. Translation requires contextual understanding, ambiguity resolution, and cultural sensitivity—skills LLMs currently lack. Similarly, programming demands creativity and problem-solving abilities beyond the current capabilities of LLMs. The author suggests LLMs are best used as assistive tools to enhance programmer efficiency, not replace them entirely.

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Development

Facebook Consolidates All Videos into Reels Format

2025-06-17
Facebook Consolidates All Videos into Reels Format

Facebook announced that all videos on its platform will soon be shared as reels, regardless of length or orientation, unifying its video formats. Users will no longer need to choose between uploading a video or a reel; all uploads will automatically become reels, removing length restrictions (currently capped at 90 seconds on Facebook Reels). This simplification mirrors Instagram's 2022 move to automatically convert short videos into reels. While some users may dislike the change—for example, horizontal videos being forced into a vertical format—Facebook assures users the update won't affect video recommendations and will be gradually rolled out globally.

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Bridging Formal and Informal: DSL Design in the Age of LLMs

2025-06-17

This post explores a novel direction at the intersection of DSLs and LLMs: designing DSLs that integrate seamlessly with LLM-based coding workflows. The author details their experience using LLMs to generate scripts, finding that LLMs excel at creating 'glue code' – filling in the boilerplate based on natural language descriptions, while leaving the complex logic to manual coding. This experience prompts a key question: how can we incorporate this LLM-assisted workflow into DSLs themselves? The ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between formal code and informal natural language specifications, potentially by automatically generating natural language specs based on DSL type analysis.

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Development

Universe's Missing Matter Found!

2025-06-17
Universe's Missing Matter Found!

For decades, scientists have searched for the universe's 'missing' ordinary matter, accounting for 5% of the universe. Researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Caltech have used fast radio bursts (FRBs) to solve the mystery: over three-quarters of ordinary matter resides in hot, low-density gas between galaxies. FRBs slow down when traversing intergalactic gas; measuring this slowdown reveals the gas density. This study provides the first detailed measurements of ordinary matter's distribution, confirming cosmological simulations and illustrating matter's movement across the universe. It also highlights the efficiency of intergalactic feedback mechanisms.

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Rainy Day Project: A TinyBASIC to Go Compiler

2025-06-18

Over a rainy weekend, the author built a compiler that translates TinyBASIC code into Go. Leveraging Go's nex (lexer) and goyacc (parser), the project comprises three stages: lexical analysis, parsing, and code generation. The author details the grammar and code generation process, showcasing example programs and outputs. This fun, challenging project demonstrates the practical application of compiler principles.

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Development

OpenAI Considers Antitrust Suit Against Microsoft: A Nuclear Option?

2025-06-17
OpenAI Considers Antitrust Suit Against Microsoft: A Nuclear Option?

OpenAI is reportedly considering filing an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, its largest investor, according to The Wall Street Journal. The potential lawsuit alleges that Microsoft is leveraging its cloud dominance and contractual power to stifle competition. This move could shatter a key AI partnership, which began with a $1 billion investment in 2019 and has since grown to billions more, including Microsoft's exclusive rights to host OpenAI models on Azure. The conflict stems from OpenAI's restructuring and disagreements over Microsoft's equity stake and exclusive cloud hosting rights.

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Tech

AI Training Bots Overwhelm Cultural Institutions

2025-06-17
AI Training Bots Overwhelm Cultural Institutions

A surge in bots harvesting data for AI training is overwhelming cultural institutions like museums and archives. A survey of 43 organizations reveals that aggressive bots, often exceeding robots.txt guidelines, are causing website slowdowns and outages. The problem is so severe that it's threatening the accessibility of digital collections. The report calls on AI companies to develop more responsible data acquisition methods, as cultural institutions lack the resources to endlessly fight back against this.

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Tech
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